POSITIVES SHINE THROUGH

Here are some of your added “pet peeves” to our ongoing collection. Keep them coming in…
Coach Kuyper,
I feel you missed an important “drives you crazy” point in youth sports:
The parent that does nothing to support the athlete. Yes, it is true some parents will drop their child off at practice and never speak to other parents or the coach. (Worse yet is the parent that will ask another parent to pick-up and return their child from practice and the games.) And there are parents that will never learn the names of the other players making it impossible to support the team during the game. I feel this behavior of some parents gets worse as the athlete gets older. Last year I became responsible for three teenage boys whose parents never came to a game. These were great kids, and my family enjoyed getting to know them. So sad the parent felt their personal time was more important than the time spent with their own child player and his team.

Dear Tom: Thank you for writing a great article.
‘Pet Peeve’ during games—-parent/parents in the stands or side lines yelling and screaming at the coaches for the decisions/players or plays that we are calling. Then, they would like to meet us during the halftime at the locker room to discuss the matters/ or FIGHT. That is my real ‘Pet Peeve’. I’ll have more later. Thank you writing your article. It is terrific.
Coach W

After having watched many years of youth sports from age 4 to high school varsity, one of my pet peeves is the parent who undermines the coach’s authority in front of the kids, and I’ve found that often the most guilty parents are the ones who know the least about that particular sport! I’m not saying a parent should never question a coaching decision, but like everything else there is a time, a place, and a way: after the game or practice, in private, & after everybody’s emotions have cooled. One exception: if a player’s actual physical safety could be compromised. Thanks for the opportunity to sound off!

Now let’s turn 180 degrees and talk about the positive. I just completed 10 weeks of summer basketball camp. I was really worried about how many kids would be coming because of the ugly economy. I was deeply touched by the response of these parents.
One parent told me that they were going to eat rice and beans so that their child could go with all his friends to basketball camp.
Another person called me and asked if he could pay for his neighbors’ child because the dad just lost his job, and he didn’t want the boy to suffer the consequence of not being able to have fun like the other kids.
Others called me and asked if they could send a check to cover a needy family for a basketball camp scholarship.
WOW!!! I was proud, so proud of the way parents, neighbors, and families placed a higher priority on the kids than themselves. I witnessed sacrificial love in many ways.
We all know that there will always be hard issues with kids and sports, but it was so obvious to me that even though disheartening things sometimes take over the headlines, this community really does love and support our kids.
I was shown that not even money, lack of job or society status will get in the way of doing what is best for our kids.
So, let’s all heat up those beans tonight in honor of our kids!!!!!